Popeye's Fall Classic
Bodybuilding is the practice, art, and science of using progressive weight training, cardiovascular workouts, and diet to enlarge and strengthen the muscles. Bodybuilding is also a competitive sport in which weight-trained physiques are judged according to criteria pertaining to size, proportion, definition, and overall aesthetics. Bodybuilding has been practiced at least since the time of the ancient Greeks; its modern incarnation grew out of the physical culture movement of the late-19th century and came into prominence in the years following World War II. In Popeye Cartoons Bluto and his fellow Famous Studios nemeses of Popeye (e.g. the Champ, the Lifeguard, Bully Boy) are practitioners of bodybuilding as evidenced by their physical proportions. These are spelled out in Steve Bierly's book Stronger than Spinach: "thick, broad shoulders and exaggerated deltoid muscles; a 2-1 waist-to-chest differential; an inverse-pyramid shape set off by well-developed latissimus dorsii and an expanded ribcage; huge arms with bursting biceps and defined triceps" (page 42). These members of the physical elite lord over the seemingly outclassed Sailor, frequently employing their superior physical stature to place him in life-threatening situations. Popeye is not a bodybuilder in the conventional sense (indeed, his sagging 'spaghetti arms' became a running gag in a number of cartoons). His muscular development and power over Bluto and his cohorts is almost invariably an ad hoc result of his ingestion of spinach. Spinach gives Popeye a momentary inflated bicep and on rare occasions expands his chest; however, his neck, shoulders, legs, and other indicative bodyparts remain in their cartoonishly undeveloped state. It nevertheless empowers him to physically engage his seemingly invincible opponents and "cut them down to size." In Contemporary Culture Bluto's reinvention as a bodybuilder came at a time when the potential for the development of the male physique began to fuel the public imagination. Although "strongmen" such as Eugen Sandow had piqued popular fascination as far back as the turn of the 20th century and muscle-building courses had been offered by fitness crusaders like Bernarr McFadden throughout the 1920s and '30s, really widespread interest began to coalesce around the "Mr. America" contest, initiated in 1940.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAU_Mr._America Mr. America winners became public figures thoroughly integrated into popular culture in newspapers, magazines, and Hollywood film roles. Immediately following World War II began the phenomenon of the "Beefcake" magazine: In December, 1945, Bob Mizer founded the Athletic Model Guild (AMG), which began to disseminate periodicals such as Physique Pictorial, which gave its readership mildly homoerotic imagery coupled with diet and exercise advice.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beefcake_magazine The late 1940s and early 1950s saw the rise of bodybuilder media celebrities like Steve Reeves and Ed Fury. Ironically, these stars were generally viewed as iconic figures to be emulated, whereas Bluto was in theory cast as a villain who was to be reviled. Under the aegis of Famous Studios, the cut-and-dried morality plays of an earlier (and later) era became more and more ambiguous, and it is widely seen that this studio had a certain degree of contempt for the Popeye character and a tremendous empathy for his well-muscled adversary. Gallery Champ Muscles.jpg|''The Champ'' Lifeguard Muscles.jpg|''The Lifeguard'' Bully Boy Muscles.jpg|''Bully Boy'' Bluto Bronzed Bodybuilder Physique.jpg|''Bluto'' Bluto as 'The Strongman'.gif|''The Strongman'' Popeye Noodle Arms.gif|''Popeye'' French Bodybuilding Magazine 1940.jpg|''Belgian bodybuilding magazine, 1940'' Bud Counts 1951.jpg|''Bud Counts 1951'' Steve Reeves 1947.jpg|''Steve Reeves 1947'' Eugene Meyer 1950.jpg|''Eugene Meyer 1950'' John Tristram 1951.jpg|''John Tristram 1951'' 1950s Teen Bodybuilder.jpg|''Teen Bodybuilder 1950s''